


the ghosts of the past and the yet to come

by rae_marie



Series: Echoes In the Universe [11]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Gen, blair kenneth verse, well you'll just have to wait and see, you're probably wondering how blair can be in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:36:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rae_marie/pseuds/rae_marie
Summary: The Master lands on Earth, and wonders why he's been brought here.





	the ghosts of the past and the yet to come

The TARDIS shuddered a little, and the Master knew she was trying to go somewhere on her own. He freed up her coordinates and let her fly. 

After a few microspans, they landed. The Master frowned and wondered where they might possibly be that was so important. He flicked on the scanner and looked out. 

It was a group of houses, the kind common on Earth in England in a certain century. The Master frowned deeper and looked up at the time rotors. 

‘Why have you brought me here?’ he asked. He could almost feel the TARDIS shrug in response. 

_ It looks safe enough _ , he thought.  _ Although….  _ He scowled.  _ Perhaps this is something to do with that treacherous  _ dog _ Miralettiarcalia…. _

He headed for the door. 

*****

He stepped out and looked around. It was exactly as it had looked on the scanner: dull, common buildings….actually, it was rather strange to be here, on modern Earth, after so long a time of staying away for Blair’s sake, so there was no parado - 

He cut off his train of thought with a vicious shake of his head. He turned, ready to go back in the ship. 

_ I am not going to face this right now! _ He furiously choked back the lump rising in his throat.

Then he spun around again. 

He realised several things at once; first, that the house across the road was extremely familiar, and he knew that he had visited it twice before, second, that there was a small, red-haired human child, about three years of age, playing in the front garden, and thirdly, that there was a cat the size of a large lion,  _ and  _ with a full set of wings stalking slowly towards the child. 

He didn’t even think; he just reacted. 

In two bounds, he was across the road, but it was too late; the giant cat was getting ready to spring. 

‘ _ Look out! _ ’ he shouted, and the child looked up just as the creature pounced. 

The Master whipped out the TCE and fired off a short blast at the creature. It howled and tumbled off the child and onto its back. 

‘Look away!’ the Master shouted, and the child put her face in her hands, crying. He  _ slammed _ his finger against the button and shrunk the creature all the way down. 

The child was still sobbing as he ran up to her. He knelt down beside her. 

‘Did it harm you?’ he asked. She spluttered. 

‘The big cat s….sc….scratched me,’ she whimpered. ‘It h….hurts.’ 

She burst into tears again. The Master couldn’t bear it. 

‘I want Mummy,’ she choked out, ‘but she’s not home.’ 

‘I shall look after you for now,’ he said. He hesitated, but knew he had to find out. ‘What is your name?’ 

‘I’m B….Blair.’ 

He had suspected it from the first, but it hit him like a punch to the chest anyway. 

She looked up at him, then looked around with a surprised expression. 

‘Are you a magical person?’ she asked, eyes wide. ‘You made the cat disappear.’ 

_ Still the same old Blair, _ he thought. 

‘Ah….not  _ magical _ , per se,’ he said. ‘Just, ah…. _ mysterious _ .’ Blair smiled a little. 

How did you make the cat disappear, Mysterious Person?’ 

‘Ah, but that is part of why I am mysterious,’ he said. ‘I cannot give away  _ all _ my secrets, can I?’ 

Blair was grinning now, and the Master helped her stand up. She looked forlornly at her stone pile, which had been knocked over in the scuffle. The Master picked up the minaturised cat while she wasn’t looking and shoved it into the depths of his pocket. 

‘I knocked my castle over,’ Blair muttered. The Master knelt down again and looked at it. Then he picked up some of the stones and arranged them as he remembered seeing them. 

‘How is that?’ he asked. Blair’s eyes widened. 

‘You  _ are _ magical,’ she whispered. 

There was the sound of wheels on gravel, and the Master looked up to see a woman pull into the driveway. With a pang, he stood. 

‘That should be your mother,’ he said. Blair grinned. 

‘Yeah, that’s her!’ The Master smiled quietly and gave a little bow before moving away. 

‘It is good to meet you, Blair,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we shall meet again, some day.’ 

She waved. 

‘Thank you, Magical Person!’ 

The Master nodded, and turned. He couldn’t stay any longer; not with a qualified UNIT agent around. He walked back towards his TARDIS. 

*****

After a moment of attempting to clear his head, the Master could not shake the feeling that he was overlooking something. Then he remembered the creature in his pocket. He went to the lab and put it on the counter. It was most certainly alien, but seemed almost interdimensional.

He studied it for a while longer before realising it was a Sargofi. He frowned. That was not good,  _ especially _ if they had their sights set on Blair; they would never give up until they had what they wanted. 

With a tired sigh, he moved to go outside again. 

*****

As soon as he was on the pavement, he saw several Sargofi prowling around the street. He couldn’t take them all out at once with the TCE; that was for certain. He would have to take a more cunning approach. 

He went back in the TARDIS and down the main corridor, to a room he had not seen in a long while. It was almost completely taken up with a gigantic cage, and in front of that cage was a neatly arranged pile of transmat equipment. The Master picked this up, and headed back for the door. 

When he was outside again, the pack had prowled closer. After looking around to make certain no one was watching, he carefully set the transmat activator across the road and switched it on with the device. He studied the instant cancel switch; hopefully no one would come along and force him to use that; after all, he only had one shot at this. 

Soon, the Sargofi were almost upon it. The Master tensed; if anything went wrong, Blair’s younger self could be in permanent danger. Sargofi were not known for giving up on their prey; once they found them in one timeline, they would find them in  _ all _ . 

A moment more, and the Sargofi pack hit the transmat trigger. One by one, they all vanished into thin air, until there was none left; only an empty street and a glowing strip of alien metal remained. 

With a sigh of relief, the Master hit the cancel switch, and the transmat stopped glowing. He retrieved the pieces, and was just about to go into the TARDIS, when he heard a growl behind him and froze. 

His hands were full; he could not drop the equipment and draw his TCE in time….he only had one regeneration left - 

The sounds of a shriek of pain and the shriek of a laser made him drop the transmat and spin around. The Sargofi crumpled to the ground, mere inches away from him, and when he looked up, agape, he saw a white-haired woman smiling at him, holding some sort of laser weapon. 

‘There; it’s stunned; now you can jettison it into the Vortex with the others.’

‘Where did you….who….’ He frowned. He could not feel any psychic presence from her at  _ all _ ; was she an android, or….? 

‘I have  _ very _ strong mental defenses up; I’ve been told that if you knew who I was, it would mess with your timeline, I’m afraid.’ 

He still stared, wondering  _ who _ she was, and  _ why _ a human on Earth both had a laser weapon,  _ and _ knew about interference in timelines. Unless she was not human….

‘Are you….’ He paused. ‘Are you…. _ me? _ Do I regenerate after all….?’ The woman shook her head.

‘I can’t tell you about regeneration, Master, but I’m a human, although a rather different one than most; mentally, and otherwise. I….’ She frowned, and paused. 

_ So she knows who I am, then, _ he thought. 

She looked up at him again. ‘I can’t really say anything else, I’m afraid, except….good luck. And….goodbye, Master, until we meet again.’ 

She smiled faintly at him and turned abruptly, and ran off into the nearby alleyway. The Master stood staring after her; he could not shake the feeling that there was something unsettlingly familiar about her, and he wanted to know  _ more _ . 

But it was obvious he would not find out for a long time.

With a sigh, and a sense of loneliness, he turned back to the TARDIS. He needed to jettison these creatures, and specifically needed to contain this one before it awoke. 

And then he needed to look to matters of his traitorous former ally, and also Terserus. Chancellor Goth could not wait much longer without growing suspicious, he feared. And that really seemed to be all that was left for him now. 

*****

She burst back into the TARDIS, choking back her pain. 

She didn’t see him, but she felt the Master come over and put his arms around her. 

‘I am sorry,’ he said. ‘You really couldn’t have done anything; even if you had tried; the events are too firmly set in place.’ 

‘I know. I just….’ she trailed off. 

‘As you very well know, it is not the end,’ he said after a moment. ‘We are both here together, now, and  _ that  _ is what matters now.’ 

She laughed, faintly. 

‘Yeah. And I’m glad we’re both here now.’ 

They stood there for awhile, and quietly, the TARDIS dematerialised into the Vortex, not waiting for them to change their minds.


End file.
